My blog has traveled around the world as I have transferred from country to country with Peace Corps. I spent 6 months in Guinea teaching chemistry and physics but had to leave when the Guinea program was suspended due to political unrest. I spent about a month in Mali and then transferred to Burkina Faso. I was a math teacher. I have now transferred to Asia and am an English teacher at a university. This will be my sixth and last year in Peace Corps.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I didn't get much of a chance to be in the states after living in Africa for two years. Two weeks stateside isn't long enough to feel the culture shock between West Africa and Alabama.

One of the biggest culture shocks I have had living in China these past few months is men and women talk to each other. In Africa, men gathered in gossip groups with men. Women gathered with women. In China I find it weird seeing men and women having dinner together, find it weird to see young people going out in mixed gender groups. I find it strange to see men taking care of babies, taking little children out for walks, holding children as they pee into the street.

Actually though I don't talk to many men here in China. In Africa, I talked more to men than women because men spoke French while women only spoke local language. Here though I talk mostly with female students. The English department is saturated with females. There is like a 5:30 ratio of men:women in the English classes.

Other than this, there hasn't really been a big culture shock. I do find that I am really disconnected to US culture. It seems like a culture from long long ago.